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“I’m the kind of man who believes that he could fix anything. But I could not fix you. I brought in the best medical help that I could. But I was told that nothing but time would wake you. If you woke at all.”
She hadn’t considered that. That she might never have woken. She would never have known about Soriya. Would never have remembered Krav.
What if she had woken but years later? Missing so much time...
It made her chest burn.
“But I did wake up,” she said fiercely.
“Yes,” he said. “You did.”
“I don’t know where to begin.”
“We will be married as soon as possible,” he said.
But something in her jumped in fear. “I don’t even remember you.”
“It does not matter. We are a family. And we have waited all this time to be so. You shall be my bride.”
“A bride who doesn’t know her husband?”
He looked at her, his dark eyes serious, compelling. “I seduced you once. I have no problem doing it again.”
And she shivered. Because the very idea of a man like him turning his focus to...seducing her... It made her...
Well, her body sang with the possibilities.
“I want to know about you,” she said. “I don’t remember anything. I’m sure we already did all the boring getting to know you sort of things, but...”
“My father was very wealthy. As was his father. As was his. I think you understand where this is going. The Valentis are very old Italian family.”
“Right.”
“The empire has expanded. We own a great many hotels. There is also a manufacturing arm. Property development. There is very little that we do not have our hands in. I am as financially secure as a person can be.”
“I don’t... I don’t even understand that. I’ve never been financially secure a day in my life.”
“You are now,” he said. “You have nothing to worry about. All of your needs will be met with me. All of Soriya’s needs will be met.”
That rubbed against something wounded in her soul.
Her mother had resented her so much, and a huge part of that had been because of the financial instability they found themselves in. At least, that was what Riot told herself. The alternative was that she just wasn’t lovable. That no matter what, her mother wouldn’t have cared. So, she liked to excuse her on the basis of stress and fear. Because it made things easier.
Why couldn’t she have forgotten that, but remembered him? This man who was beautiful and offering to take care of her.
Why was so much of him a blank space?
“How did we fall in love?”
He leaned back in his chair, his elbow resting on the arm of it, his dark eyes fathomless. Compelling.
“I told you how we met. It was undeniable. This thing between us.”
“It must’ve been. Otherwise, I never would have... I was raised my whole life to be very cautious about strangers. And particularly strange men. I built up a pretty healthy immunity to them. So, I can’t imagine that encountering you alone in a ruin would’ve made me feel altogether very confident.”
“You were not,” he said. “You were skittish at first. But you needed a ride. I brought you back. You didn’t leave.”
“And then what happened?”
